It seems like ages ago now, but back in October my blog was part of the Charity Auctions organized by Casual Stroll to Mordor. The first auction was won by Tuiliel and her outfit “Lady of Streams” was posted shortly after. The second auction was won by Tiny, a female Elf Minstrel on Elendilmir. I started working on those outfits too but unfortunately the player was out of the country and would have no internet access until January. So I decided to wait until the player returned home and would be able to fire up Lotro once again to try out the outfits.
Tiny confessed to having a fancy for large brimmed hats, and would usually be dressed in hauberks or dresses. Favorite colors were green and purple, and no hoods please! The rest was basically up to me.

Without access to Lotro it was hard to check for availability of items in vault and wardrobe, so I concentrated on items that are relatively easy to access, especially at level cap. The cloak that I used in this outfit, was a unique item at the time when I took these screenshots, and available only from The Great River area as a quest reward. To my delight a cloak with the same appearance now also drops as a BoE item in the new Webs of the Scuttledells instance, so you will be able to find it on the Auction House as Spider-silk Cloak as well. I hope this outfit serves as an inspiration to enjoy playing Lotro again!
Just for the fun of it I made a second outfit for Tiny as well, with a very elvish appearance and definitely no brimmed hat!

Head: Plumed Hat, umber dye (world drop or crafted T6 light armour as Master’s Hat)
Shoulders: Padded Shoulder Pads of the Wold, yellow dye (Rohan quest reward or barter, light armour)
Chest: Robe of the Seven Stars, umber dye (cosmetics vendor Skirmish camp)
Hands: Hale-glofas, yellow dye (Rohan quest reward or barter, light armour)
Feet: Reclaimed Nobleman’s Shoes, umber dye (Great River quest reward, light)
Back: Cloak of the Unwelcome Guest, umber dye (Great River quest reward, light)

This second outfit for Tiny came together after Update 9, as a result of the Barad Guldur armor becoming available at the Skirmish camp. I don’t know of many serious outfitters who are not delighted with these additions, because many pieces of these level 65 armor sets are must-haves, or at least desirable items. One of those must-haves are the level 65 Loremaster’s shoulders. These are so unique and beautiful that they are a wonderful addition to any wardrobe, and can be worn with dresses, armor and robes alike. For this outfit I chose a classic Mirkwood look with crafted pieces, and only those shoulders as a finishing touch, and no cloak as to make it stand out more.

Except for the shoulders, the entire ensemble is made with crafted items. However these are crafted with Mirkwood recipes so you need a Tailor with Friend standing in Mirkwood to craft them. The recipes can be bought in Ost Galadh, and once learned are not forgotten again. At level 65 this armor set was very common, but these days the items are rare. I still like them for their natural look and leather-like base color and they are an excellent match to any other item from the Barad Guldur sets that you may want to combine with.

Head: Tawarwaith Helmet, ranger green dye (crafted T6 Mirkwood recipe, light armour)
Chest: Golden Host Coat, ranger green dye (crafted T6 Mirkwood recipe, medium armour)
Shoulders: Lore-keeper’s Shoulders, rust dye (skirmish camp Classic vendor, level 65 Barad Guldur set)
Legs: Golden Host Leggings, ranger green dye (crafted T6 Mirkwood recipe, medium armour)
Hands: Golden Host Gloves, ranger green dye (crafted T6 Mirkwood recipe, medium armour)
Feet: Tawarwaith Shoes, ranger green dye (crafted T6 Mirkwood recipe, light armour)

Finally time to make myself another outfit! It’s noticeable that I haven’t been playing many instances or raids lately, because my medallion pool is swiftly shrinking to an all time low, and there’s still so many fantastic Dol Guldur pieces that I would like to add to my collection! I do hope the level 65 pieces will get converted to cosmetics some time soon, so we can get them a bit cheaper, because I cannot keep up with everything I want this way!
For those who are still after some Ost Dunhoth pieces but have a hard time gathering the Medallions of the Northmen, the good news is that by next update these pieces can be obtained with regular medallions too. I have no idea what they will cost, but Bullroarer will be up soon so we can check. I assume the prices will be in the same range as the Dol Guldur level 65 pieces. And in case you are really running low on medallions too, the Lotro store has two of the Ost Dunhoth sets available from the Mannequins.
The cloak in this outfit used to be different. Ever since the release of the Annúminas cluster in 2007, its color was chartreuse and only the tiny branches and leaves were dyeable. It was a unique and beautiful color. Last year this suddenly changed where the branches and leaves became the undyeable part and the cloak itself will now change color. Personally I still feel sad that this was changed. I /bugged it, but apparently it’s working as intended because it was never changed back to its original state.

The best news of the week comes from the Twitter devchat: as per next update we will get a *free* toggle to opt out of forced emotes! (Yes, free, as in not in the Lotro store but available to everyone!). Now I know this is a very touchy topic on the Lotro forums, but I myself am incredibly relieved that this is finally being implemented. I was never very vocal about it, but I absolutely hate forced emotes. I don’t use them on other people and I don’t appreciate people using them on me either. The fact that this feature will be offered free of charge just gained Turbine a boost in +rep from my perspective, especially because lately every feature seems to come with a price attached.
Another thing coming by next Update are the new armor sets! No doubt it will require some grinding and raiding to obtain them, but at least it’s something new to look forward to and work towards. I really hope they look good and don’t suffer from clipping and deformations!

Chest: Blade of the West Breastplate, Evendim blue dye (barter Harndirion, champion)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Hopeful Melody, Evendim blue dye (Skirmish camp Classic vendor, Dol Guldur level 65 minstrel)
Legs: Blade of the West Leggings, Evendim blue dye (barter Harndirion, champion)
Hands: Gloves of the Quiet Knife, Evendim blue dye (barter Ox-clan Camp, burglar)
Feet: Reclaimed Nobleman’s Shoes, Evendim blue dye (Great River quest reward, medium)
Back: Cloak of the Seven Stars, Evendim blue dye (Skirmish camp Cosmetics and Classic vendor, Annuminas light set)

My second card in the Tarot Series is not the Magician (as would be the logical order of the deck), but the Hermit. I am not trying to create every single card out of the Tarot, as with 78 cards total that would be most certainly too much to accomplish on this blog, nor am I sticking to any particular order. In stead I am picking out cards that stand out to me or that I feel can be emulated within the Lotro game environment.

The Hermit stands for retreat, contemplation, solitude, reflection, wisdom, isolation and… well, a whole range of other meanings in that context. The wonderful but for beginning Tarot readers sometimes overwhelming issue with the Tarot is that all cards have multiple meanings. Most books or lists on the internet will give you a general meaning for a card, but its ultimate significance is influenced by its position in a spread and the intuitive interpretation of the Tarot reader. And even that is not the whole story of Tarot interpretation as symbolic correspondences, timing, the question of the querent, and many other things all subtly influence the exact meaning of a card. However, the basic meaning of The Hermit card refers to a period of reflection or retreat, necessary to “see the light”.

There are several stories, events and people in the Lord of the Rings that reflect the archetype of The Hermit. An archetype is not a person, though it can be expressed through a person or personality. An archetype is rather a pattern of human behavior, a general pattern of circumstances or a classic series of events.

A good example of the Hermit archetype expressed through a classic series of events is Gandalf’s period of silence and solitude after fighting the Balrog in Moria, where he basically “fights his own demons” in the darkness and passes through the doors of death. As a result he needs to retreat from all involvement in Middle-earth before he can be “born again” into the light. Gandalf is always enigmatic, and keeps his thoughts to himself, so he expresses the Hermit archetype through his personality as well. Other well known “Hermits” in Middle-earth are Tom Bombadil and Radagast and even Bilbo Baggins’ retreat to Rivendell can be regarded as a Hermit pattern.

It was not so easy getting my own Hermit to pose for this Tarot card, but I believe the image still reflects the Hermit well. With my virtual LOTRO Tarot Series I do not aim to represent any of Tolkien’s characters, nor parts of his stories necessarily, but rather use the game environment and outfit system to create an image that I think captures the symbolism, colors and meaning of that particular Tarot card.

For comparison, I added the images of three real Tarot cards. These Hermits are from the Radiant Waite Tarot, the Wildwood Tarot (which renamed the card The Hooded Man) and the Sharman-Caselli Tarot.

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So when Ketani mentioned on Twitter last week that there was a new store exclusive Steed available in the Lotro store with actual silver colored armor, I knew my champion berserker would finally have his own “class steed”. I never bought him the champion steed because it’s just not my taste. I was always hoping for something more heavily armored, and it finally arrived! Just like any other store exclusive steed (or reputation steed for that matter), it comes with certain drawbacks. For starters it has an undyeable olive colored blanket . Now I know for a fact that every player who rides a war-steed and has ever purchased some gear color packs absolutely hates this. Just as much as undyeable parts of an outfit are an insult to a carefully color coordinated look. Well, maybe you can live with it if you adore olive, but… to me it’s an eyesore. However there are too many eyesores in the world of Lotro cosmetics to even bother anymore, so I got my steed and got him as close to looking good as I could. My champion has only limited access to war-steed colors as in my opinion they’re still way overpriced and I only bought him two packs when they were on sale last year.
The saddle that is included in this set looks really cool, however, it is as flawed as it is cool because when my champ sits on it, the high front part cuts through his abdomen. So I decided to use the regular black saddle and have him sit more comfortably.
Despite all these discouraging issues, he turned out looking great and I’m very happy with my purchase and pleased with the end result of his looks.
The Steed of the Khundolar is currently for sale for a limited time until February 28, 2013.

The outfit pieces that I used all come from the Steely Dawn Steam deal that was on a 50% sale last December. Minus the chest piece which is an Isengard quest reward that I still treasure as one of the better chest pieces in game. The matching detail is the color of the sleeves, which are an undyeable…. olive.

Head: Helm of the Steely Dawn, cannot be dyed
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Steely Dawn, cannot be dyed
Chest: Hyrde-Bréost, black dye (Isengard landscape quest reward, heavy armour)
Hands: Gauntletsof the Steely Dawn, cannot be dyed
Feet: Bootsof the Steely Dawn, cannot be dyed

War-steed:
Khundolar Halter – grey
Khundolar Caparison – grey
Khundolar Leggings – grey
Plain Black Saddle
Hide: grey
Tail: white

I was actually going to do a low-level outfit for my hobbit warden, until I saw this week’s sale being announced and noticed that the War-steed colour and equipment dyes are on sale! As you may know I find the base price of the war-steed cosmetic features way too high (especially since these prices are per character) and refuse to buy them at full price, so whenever they are on sale, I am interested. My lore-master’s steed got a colour make-over and a new combined outfit. For the outfit itself I used yellow dye which is one of the few free colours, but more important than equipment colours are the hide colours, as the dull default grey of the skin is just unbearable. Being able to change hide and mane colour of your steed makes a lot of difference to the visual enjoyment of the game.
I may purchase some accessories too later this week, if my TP funds allow me to.

Now something needs to be said about the Robe of Eomer that is used in this outfit. It is one of several crafted Tier 8 items that are affected by deformations. The severity of the deformation depends on the race and gender that you are using the item on. This Robe for example cannot be used on female elves for it makes their arms look like spaghetti and their chest like a deflated balloon. The same is true for the medium and heavy crafted chest pieces. Many of the Tier 8 items are terribly deformed on certain races. This robe has a slightly weird look on Race of Man females as well, the shoulders look too square for my taste, but that may just be the design of the robe itself and not a deformity. I have bugged the deformities in game and I know many other players have as well, but so far nothing has been changed about their appearance. It’s a real shame because of all armour pieces that came out of the Rohan expansion, the crafted pieces are the best looking, but unfortunately often unusable as cosmetics. Maybe if we continue to bug these items, some day they will be corrected.

Head: Quilted Hat, yellow dye (crafted Tier 2, light armour)
Chest: Spirited Assault Robe of Éomer, yellow dye (crafted Tier 8, light armour)
Hands: Fingerless Gloves, yellow dye (Yule Festival reward, cosmetic)
Feet: Potent Skirmish Boots of the Mark, white dye (crafted Tier 8, medium armour)

War-steed:
Lore-master’s Caparison – yellow
Lore-master’s Leggings – yellow
Hide – copper
Tail – flaxen chestnut
Accessory – Steed of Night
Light Saddle of the Wold

From March 11th to the 18th 2013 it’s Fashion Week in LOTRO!
Pull out your finest fabrics and make sure to participate in the various community and in-game events.

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Enter the Fashion Screenshot Contest
Participate in the Fashion Screenshot Contest! We’re looking for this year’s hottest styles and you won’t be judged solely by the Community Team. This contest features two special community awards – one handed out by the team of fashionistas: The Starry Mantle and Cosmetic Lotro, and the other by the community itself.
Participate in any of these categories:
* Most Fashionable Kinship *
* Fashion In Motion *
* Professionally Minded *
 * Formal Extravagance *
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Join the Community Events
Check your server for community events and participate in a fashionable way to win some Turbine Points or Cosmetics!
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Lotteries?
Be sure to check the lotteries frequently during Fashion Week! Most likely we will see some fashionable items included. Don’t forget to follow @LOTRO on Twitter just in case we’ll see some Fashion Flash Lotteries as well.
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Get a Free Dye
During the Fashion Week two Fashionista Blogs each offer coupon codes to get free dyes at the Lotro Store. Since Pink is still not in demand (despite Aegthil’s unrelenting efforts), my blog offers a free BLACK and GREY DYE!
To claim your free dyes:

Log into the LOTRO Store and find Black Dye and Grey Dye.

• Choose to either buy a single dye (not the stack!) or quick buy the standard dye.
• When prompted, insert the coupon codes
  BDYE13 for the black dye
  GYE13 for the grey dye
  Click APPLY COUPON.
  The price should set to zero after the coupon is applied.
• Checkout as normal. Zero points will be removed, and you’ll get the dye in your bag.
• The coupon codes expire in a month and can be used once per account.

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Check The Starry Mantle for more free dye colours!

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Have fun this week, and make sure you dress to impress!

Filed under: Contests, Latest news

So it’s Fashion Week, and I have the honor of hosting Coupon Codes for two free dye colors at the Lotro Store! You can find these codes in the left side bar of this blog. To help you get inspired I will post two outfits during Fashion Week using these colors as their main theme.
My favorite dye color is black. Black is always stylish and black evens out all wishy washy background colours that we sometimes find on armour, so it’s both beautiful and useful. Since it’s Fashion Week, looking fancy is way more important than the practical aspects of your outfit, so a huntress in a robe is just perfect for the occasion!

The hat and shoulders are part of the Ost Dunhoth Minstrel set, which can be bought with medallions at Harndirion or can be purchased as cosmetics from the Mannequins for the duration of this patch (10). If you are like me you probably received a load of Mithril Coins with the conversion of Festival Tickets and Travel Writs, so if you’re wondering what to do with those, grabbing some of those Mannequin sets might be a good idea.
I hope you all participate in the Fashion Screenshot Contest this week because I count on you to give us a really hard time judging all the entries for the Fashionista’s Choice Award!

Head: Voice of the West Hat, black dye (Ost Dunhoth Minstrel set or cosmetic)
Shoulders: Voice of the West Shoulders, orange dye (Ost Dunhoth Minstrel set or cosmetic)
Chest: Runemaker’s Armour, black dye (Barad Guldur Runekeeper’s set level 65, Classic Vendor)
Hands: Fingerless Gloves, black dye (Yule Festival cosmetic)
Feet: Reclaimed Nobleman’s Shoes, black dye (Great River quest reward, light)
Back: Fancy Quiver, black dye (Trestlebridge outfitter cosmetic)

The Lady of the Lake is the mysterious ruler of Avalon in the Arthurian legend. There are several related characters in the role which include giving King Arthur his sword Excalibur, enchanting Merlin, and raising Lancelot after the death of his father.
Nenuial or Lake Evendim to me is always reminiscent of Avalon somehow, even though it’s from a different world and a different legend.
Not motivated to do any raiding or end game content at the moment, I started a new character and thought she was perfect to model as the Lady of the Lake!

In Lotro fashion I often find that the rule “less is more” is true. There are many cool shoulders, cloaks and helmets to add to an outfit, but sometimes you just have to allow the simplicity of a gown speak for itself. This particular dress is only available at the reputation vendor in Thangulhad, and can be purchased at kindred standing with the Elves of Mirkwood. There is a long sleeved version available from the barter as well (which is also sold in the Lotro store), but the sleeveless version is more appropriate when going for a swim. I fell in love with the Barad Guldur runekeeper headpiece, and just these two simple pieces together made the perfect outfit for my Lady of Avalon.

Head: Runemaker’s Hat, sea blue dye (Classic vendor, Barad Guldur light armour Runekeeper)
Chest: Elegant Elven Dress, sea blue dye (Reputation vendor Thangulhad, Mirkwood)

Players have addressed me with questions regarding the mannequin outfits which I would like to answer in this post, hoping to clarify some issues that players seem to be concerned about.

1. Why did the mannequin outfit prices go up from 20mc to 50mc?
Answer: my best guess is that the original price of 20mc was incorrect. Mannequin outfits used to cost 775TP before update 9, which is closer to 50mc than to 20mc. In my opinion, the price of 20mc for an entire outfit was too low compared to other outfits in the store.

2. Can I still buy the outfit that was on the mannequins before this update?
Answer: No you cannot. I have no idea how often or even if these outfits will rotate at all, but don’t expect it to return to the mannequins any time soon. However there are other ways to obtain the same pieces, so ask around on the cosmetics forum.

3. I want the Armour of the West set, can I buy it in the store?
Answer: Not currently, but perhaps some day the “of the West” armor sets will be sold in the store for a limited time just like the Rift and Helegrod sets are. However if you have enough medallions and can make it to Harndirion in Enedwaith (which is even possible as a chicken!), you can purchase the regular Lesser Armour of the West pieces from the vendor there and share them with your other characters through the wardrobe system. You DO NOT need to be the exact class nor a minimum level to buy these pieces, any character can purchase these.

4. Is Cosmetic Lotro the only one designing mannequin outfits?
Answer: Obviously not, as many sets that are on the mannequins are just the regular, pre-designed sets and some ensembles that were combined by the Turbine team. I have submitted a few outfits to Turbine, based on what players had asked for in the poll on this blog. My aim is to get as many rare, obsolete or hard to acquire items on there as possible, specifically the old PvMP items and unique cloaks. I have also suggested on several occasions to simply put the original complete armour sets on the mannequins, which I hope they will take to heart and do in the future.

5. Can I submit my own outfit for the mannequins?
Answer: I don’t see why not, but I have no idea if Turbine will accept such submissions. If you are interested in sending in your ideas, please contact a member of the community team through the forum.

I hope these answers are helpful, if you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask on the comment section of this post.
As for myself, I am very pleased with my new mannequin outfit, as I have obtained an obsolete Rune-keeper robe that is no longer available through any other means in game. This is true for all items in that particular outfit (displayed on a hobbit mannequin), which is a blend of Rune-keeper items and the very desirable Minstrel shoulders, so in my opinion well worth the purchase. I love to put thick robes on my super skinny Rune-keeper as it gives her a bit of shape and makes her look more normal. On top of that, the base color of this robe is a perfect match to the base color of the Rune-keeper steed caparison which is on sale this week.
I’m always happy to promote cosmetic and fluff items in the store as I’m always hoping that the revenue from those items keeps this game going, rather than items that improve your character or item stats. I’m really looking forward to loads of more fluff items coming our way with the 6th Anniversary festival that will start this week!
Just a friendly reminder to the rune-keepers: you can use ANY rune-satchel cosmetically, including those above your level, legendary and even unidentified, provided you have the Wardrobe feature and a free slot to put it in. So check the Auction House for something more attractive than the extremely dull level 85 ones that are around. I do not recommend buying the ones from the Lotro store as those cannot be dyed.

Shoulders: Lesser Arrow of the West Shoulder Guards, white dye (Harndirion barter or mannequin cosmetic)
Chest: Cer. Robe of the Word-crafter, white dye (mannequin cosmetic)
Hands: Cer. Gloves of the Word-crafter, white dye (mannequin cosmetic)
Feet: Cer. Shoes of the Word-crafter, white dye (mannequin cosmetic)
Satchel: Master’s Rune-satchel of Dagor, white dye

Mae govannen fellow travellers of Middle-earth!

Lately my blog activity has slowed down to only a few posts this year. I am still playing Lotro, but not as actively as I used to, since I started a new business this year that takes up a lot of my time. Spending energy on real life activities always diminishes game time, and as a result the time I used to spend on outfitting and this blog is currently non-existent.

Most of you will have found their way to Lalia’s market by now. This little shop is a cosmetic lover’s dream come true, and should keep your wardrobes stocked for a good while. Lalia and Hymne have been good friends ever since she was rescued from that horrible prince in the Barrows. Lalia gave Hymne a cute little cloak at the time, and Hymne has been helping her to dress the mannequins in her new store. You can find many of the mannequin outfits showcased on this blog!

I am still very much looking forward to any future Festivals and I will do my best to keep documenting the cosmetics that appear there, but new outfits will only be posted occasionally.

Happy outfitting and thank you for continuing to follow this blog!

~Hymne

The Lissuin Steed comes in two versions: the regular festival horse and a set of war-steed cosmetics. The normal horse is available for 40 Spring Leaves at the Quartermaster on the Festival Grounds or at the Hengstacer Farm. The war-steed cosmetics are available at two different locations. Caparison and Leggings at the Quartermaster for 20 Spring Leaves each, and Halter and Saddle at the vendor in Bree near the Boar Fountain for 80/80/80 flowers each. You need to do the (daily) flower picking quest from the same vendor to obtain those flowers.
The war-steed cosmetics can be dyed.

Here is a preview of the Spring Festival Cosmetics 2013 available from the Quartermaster at the Festival Grounds.

Lissuin Robe – 18 Spring Leaves  (Honey, does this robe make me look fat…?)

Lissuin Dress – 18 Spring Leaves

Lissuin Cloak – 15 Spring Leaves

Lissuin Hooded Cloak – 15 Spring Leaves

Just when I think I’m done posting for a while because there’s not enough time in the day, I get distracted by this awesome Spring Festival war-steed Caparison that is just begging me to be used in a screenshot. This most outrageous neon-green color has me completely fascinated, so here it is. The dawn gave me just enough time to capture a few worthwhile screenshots of my latest dark and mysterious night elf outfit.

There’s no shot of the backside of the outfit unfortunately, but this unique top, which is now for sale at Lalia’s Market in Bree, has a beautiful back, so I didn’t cover it up with a cloak. If you love the Annúminas cosmetics, this top makes a great addition to the Seven Stars set. I first saw this top during the Dressage daily in Harwick but had not seen it before and had no idea where to get it. I’m so glad it’s now available as a cosmetic!
The head piece however is no longer available in game, as it belongs to the obsolete PvMP Hunter’s armour set. I hope those sets will show up at Lalia’s too some day!

Head: Helm of the Hawk-eye, black dye (Hunter PvMP set, no longer available)
Shoulders: Shoulders of the Wall-warden, black dye (Warden BG level 65 set, Classic Vendor)
Chest: Jacket of the Woods, black dye (Lalia’s Market, cosmetic)
Hands: Gauntlets of the Hidden Paths, black dye (Great River quest reward, heavy)
Legs: Leggings of the Seven Stars, black dye (Annuminas Light Set, Cosmetics Vendor)
Feet: Boots of the Shadow-walker, black dye (Burglar BG level 65 set, Classic Vendor + Lalia’s Market)

War-steed: black hide & mane, tail
Caparison: Spring Lissuin Caparison, black
No saddle, halter or leggings. Elves ride bareback!

The Starry Mantle and Cosmetic Lotro have joined forces once again to present you with a new and fun contest! This time, the challenge is to dress up your hero (or heroine) as the local villain, and get him or her taken into custody! We need you to take screenshots of all those pesky scoundrels, riff raff, drunks, rapscallions and general disturbers of the peace and turn those pictures into genuine mugshots. In addition you may choose to add a short description or a story of the crime committed, in order to compete in the crime story category of this contest.

First Prize: 1500 Turbine Points
Second Prize: 1000 Turbine Points
Third Prize: 500 Turbine Points

Crime Story Prize:
In-game title “The Sociable” + account wide Cremello Steed

Yzgrim rather resented his arrest as the town guards dragged him out of The Prancing Pony after breaking wind while a wedding celebration was in full swing.

A mugshot is a combination of a front and profile picture, taken from suspects when they are arrested. To create an original, funny and witty mugshot you can make use of emotes or character motions. Make sure you dress accordingly and don’t forget to use hats, hairstyles, handheld items and even facial features for maximum effect.
Good luck, have fun and don’t forget to check out The Starry Mantle for additional inspiration!

Despite numerous warnings, the Bounders caught Mayrose once again carrying off mail and letters that were definitely not addressed to her.

How to enter the contest

Mugshot
To enter the mugshot-contest you must take TWO waist-up screenshots of your villain: one front picture and one profile picture. You may cut and/or crop your screenshots as needed, just keep them as large as possible and use the highest resolution available. If you have sufficient image editing skills, you can proceed to blend these two screenshots into one image and present us with a genuine “mugshot” (just like you see in the examples of this post; suggested size for a finished mugshot is 800×600). If you don’t have enough image editing experience do not worry! We will make sure your images will be edited into a proper “mugshot”. You may enter the contest with a maximum of three different mugshots, but each entry must be in a separate email. You must send your entries to outfitblogs(AT)gmail.com with the subject line “mugshot contest” before June 28th 2013, midnight Eastern Standard Time.
Please include the following information with your entry:

• name of the character in the screenshot
• server the character resides on.

Crime story
To enter the crime story-contest you must first enter the mugshot-contest. Write up a short story or description of the crime that the villain in the mugshot has been accused of and include it with your mugshot entry. The story may not exceed 200 words.

Prizes
Four prizes will be awarded:
- Mugshot First Prize: 1500 Turbine Points
- Mugshot Second Prize: 1000 Turbine Points
- Mugshot Third Prize: 500 Turbine Points
- Crime Story Prize: code for in-game title “The Sociable” + code for account wide “Cremello Mount”.
All prizes courtesy of Turbine.
IMPORTANT: It is possible to win a prize in the Mugshot contest + the Crime Story Prize. These prizes are NOT mutually exclusive! However, it is also possible to win the Crime Story contest, without winning a prize in the Mugshot contest.

Criteria
The criteria used to judge your “mugshot” entries are:
- Appearance of the villain (hair, face, hat, outfit, handheld items, etc.)
- Expression of the villain (emotes, motions, pose)
- Atmosphere of the screenshot (location, background, lighting)
- Overall impression (very subjective and at the discretion of the outfit blogs)
The criteria used to judge your “crime story” entries are:
- Originality of the crime involved
- Quality of the story

The Mugshot Contest has inspired many players to come up with fun and original screenshots and crime stories. Of course everybody deserves to win, but we had to make a selection from the entries and pick the finalists, so the winners are:

1st Prize – 1500 Turbine Points
Runcible of Snowbourn
Runcible Spooner has had his knuckles rapped for a Boardinghouse Reach violation and dishing up dessert with a non-regulation spoon.

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2nd Prize – 1000 Turbine Points
Margeylane of Brandywine

Margey was held on counts of “Criminal Culinary Craft” and “Potash Pudding”.

* * *

3rd Prize – 500 Turbine Points
Dhelin of Estel

Dhelin the Barber was banned and his beard and hair cut short in consequence of a lack of barbering skills.

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Crime Story Prize – “The Sociable” ingame title & Cremello Steed
Thego of Firefoot

Thego was trying to impress the ladies, as he often did. This time his eye had been caught by Rosemary, a hobbit-lass working at the Prancing Pony. “Every woman likes cats”, Thego thought, and so he scouted around Bree, looking for one. He came across a house full of cats, and sneakily carried one off. “She has so many, she won’t notice if I take one,” he thought. Little did he know it was the cat lady’s favorite, Horatio, that he had stolen. It was only after sitting in jail for two days that he found out Rosemary was allergic to cats.

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Many thanks to all who participated in the contest , thank you Starry from The Starry Mantle for co-hosting the contest with me and a thank you to Turbine who kindly provided us with the prizes.

Filed under: Contests, Other

Steed of the Midsummer – 40 Summer Festival Tokens
Caparison of the Midsummer (war-steed cosmetic) – 40 Summer Festival Tokens

Robe of the Midsummer – 20 Summer Festival Tokens

Cloak of the Midsummer – 20 Summer Festival Tokens
Hooded Cloak of the Midsummer – 20 Summer Festival Tokens

The good part of the Summer Festival in my opinion is that Turbine has offered us an enjoyable festival without too much of a steep grind to obtain our items. Just like the Spring Festival, the amount of tokens needed for a horse or the (war-steed) cosmetics is well within reason. This makes it fun for me to participate with all my characters without feeling like I’m doing something I should not be doing. So far 3 of my characters have obtained the horse.
Unfortunately I’m not very excited about the matching cosmetics. There is no dress in the new set, which is a disappointment if you like the girly stuff, and the old world design that is used for the robe is well… old. I would have loved to have seen this rising sun design on one of the longer Dunland model robes. The war-steed cosmetic consists of only one piece, the caparison. There is no matching saddle, leggings or halter. This is in line with the looks of the regular horse version.
So for my matching war-steed outfit I decided to use a classic dress, and I’ll just store that robe for colder days in Autumn. The war-steed caparison dyes well in all colors, although in my opinion not all colors are a good match to the greenish hemline. Fortunately the old Rohan pre-order war-steed cosmetics come in handy now if you wish to use additional gear, as their color green is an exact match to the hemline.

Chest: Innkeeper’s Dress (olive dye), Lotro Store cosmetic
Head: Harvest-brew Circlet (no dye), Fall Fesitval cosmetic
Hand: Foxglove, reward from Epic Vol.III, Book 10, Ch.15, hand item

War-steed:
Caparison of the Midsummer (sienna dye)
Rohirrim Elite Leggings (no dye), Rohan pre-order item
Rohirrim Elite Tail (copper), Rohan pre-order item
Hide (dark chestnut)

I know that it’s not at all lore-appropriate to run around Middle-earth looking like a Musketeer, but since I am a hopeless romantic I just had to make my own Comte d’Artagnan. I originally made my male Champion to sort of look like Aragorn, but ever since I created him some four years ago I have used him to look like more or less any attractive man that I could think of. I’m convinced that many male MMO players create female toons to look at something pleasing as well, non?
I was never able to create the perfect Musketeer-look but accidentally found the new Tier 8 Wildermore crafted heavy armour to be a very good match to an old cloak he had in his vault, and I was pleased enough with the end result to post it to my blog.

My summer holiday has started and rather than sitting outside in the sun I find myself drawn to outfitting again. Some bad habits never go away I guess, ha ha. I may be posting a few more in the next few weeks!

Chest: Potent Wildermore Armour (Ered Luin Blue dye) – crafted T8 Wildermore heavy armour
Head: Elegant Plumed Hat (Ered Luin Blue dye) – Lotro store cosmetic
Shoulders: Storyteller’s Furlined Mantle (Ered Luin Blue dye) – Dunland quest reward
Hands: Eastemnet Skirmish Gauntlets (Ered Luin Blue dye) – crafted T8 medium armour
Feet: Disused Boots of the Dunland Soothsayer (Ered Luin Blue dye) – Dunland quest reward
Back: Cloak of the Stronghold (Ered Luin Blue dye) – drop from Igash, Grand Stairs Moria